Most of the games we have Tottenham winning the larger portion of the possession. AVB had built his tactics around keeping possession and slowly building up the play.
It was a success at Porto, but since moving to the EPL it has proven unsuccessful. You cannot blame a manger for doing this, Fergie has always kept to his core tactics as has Jose, but for AVB it has been a steep learning curve.
With Bale in the team he was able to stick to these tactics, but since his summer move it has opened the team up to huge criticism.
Most of the game's have seen Tottenham slowly progressing up the pitch and passing backwards or sideways rather than attempt to create a channel or space to attack. It had left the midfield looking lost and our attacking threats weak, but our defence had been reaping the benefits.
It took a huge loss against City to force AVB to shake things up.
We actually had over 8% of the game being played on Utd’s wings, compared to the recent 5% (or so). It may only be an improvement of 3%, but what a difference it made.
Lennon looking back to full fitness and confidence certainly helped matters, but there is still some tweaking to do.
Chadli is not ready for a starting role and Sigurdsson has certainly proven that he CANNOT play on the wing, so AVB must do one of two things put Lennon or Townsend out there. The ideal option as I have been saying for weeks is to put Andros out there. Players need to play in their natural position. Bale started life as a left midfielder and was moulded into a left back. Harry brought Bale in to put him back to his natural position and looked how it worked! Andros must be moved back into his natural position in order for him to progress and for Tottenham to reap the rewards.
This attacking style of play would mean that we will lose some possession, but it will allow us to stretch the play (many teams in the EPL have shown that they cannot cope with pace on both wings and natural capable players in those positions). It has been highlighted with Townsend being marked with two or three players, you can’t do that on both wings or you leave the middle wide open!
AVB has made the first sacrifice in swapping possession for pace and wing play, now he must harness the full capabilities that the squad has.
Lennon is concerned of losing his place to Townsend and Lamela (thus the sudden raise in his performance) and now is the time to push on. Although this is not ideal for Lamela it does open up a space as the support man for him. If we had the pace of these three behind the striker think of the possibilities! Away from home this type of sacrifice is likely to end badly against the bigger teams, but I cannot see why AVB would not chance it.
If AVB is to make a true sacrifice for the better of the team he must drop the possession for quick, aggressive and creative play. Most importantly he must put the players in their natural spots to expose the full potential.
It's not about exciting football, it's about creating as many chances as possible, the more chances we have the more goals we will score. It may be a bit Keegan style, but the defence has shown it capable of maintaing clean sheets!
Can anyone truly argue that playing the three above would not open any defence up? I think not. So let's give it a go against Fulham who are flat on their backs. I think with this formation we could score three or four goals!
COYS!!!!
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